SpaceX Makes Spaceflight History with First 'Used' Rocket

By Ana Verayo, | April 01, 2017

SpaceX SES-10 Launch - world's first reflight of an orbital class rocket

SpaceX SES-10 Launch - world's first reflight of an orbital class rocket

SpaceX made spaceflight history Thursday, March 30 when the private space company launched a used booster rocket to space, carrying a communications satellite. By incorporating reusable rockets for space missions, this will significantly slash expensive launch costs and efficient turnover of cargo payload to the space station. 

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This successful SpaceX mission launch blasted off from the NASA Kennedy Space Center in Florida with an SES-10 communications satellite. Upon launching the Falcon 9 rocket and boosting the satellite into geostationary orbit, the rocket returned back to Earth and landed on a floating drone ship off the coast of Florida.

Musk said it has been an amazing day for space and this can now be done, which was initially thought as impossible by many. By achieving this rocket reusability, this crucial development can even lead to more launches to lower Earth orbit and beyond at a cost effective budget.

Musk also reveals that SpaceX waited 15 years for this launch, who once compared reusable rockets to airplanes that can fly over and over again. Each SpaceX launch currently costs at US $62 million however it is still undisclosed how much is this SES launch.

 

Apparently, SpaceX engage in non-disclosure agreements depending on the customer's needs. Last month, Musk announced that a couple of private citizens paid for a roundtrip to the moon and back using the new Crew Dragon spacecraft. 

According to SpaceX's chief operating officer, Gwynne Shotwell, these "flight proven" rockets can potentially provide space tourists a 30 percent discount in the future. For Thursday's mission, this first "flight proven" booster rocket already went to space last year in April during a cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station.

This means that the main body of the Falcon 9 rocket is recycled, that separates from the top part of the rocket and flies back to Earth. This booster rocket will arrive at a landing pad on a droneship off the Florida coast.

Out of 13 space launches, SpaceX successfully returned their reusable rockets eight times. The first reusable rocket to land back on Earth was in December 2015 which is now on display at the SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California.

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